Doraemon, the famous Japanese cat cartoon character, has replaced a real cat in a ceremony farmers hold to ask for relief from a drought and shortage of tap water.
About 100 residents in Phichit's Thap Khlo district held the traditional rain-asking parade after there had been no rain for more than a month and their crops were dying. They were also desperate with the on-again, off-again supply of running water from the state.
Called hae nang maew, the procession traditionally puts a cat in a cage. People sing and dance when the parade goes through their village as they pour water on the feline in the belief that the wet cat will end the shortage of rain. The parade yesterday involved putting a small Doraemon doll and two bigger cat dolls in the animal's place.
Participants in the procession said they decided to not use a real animal to avoid animal-torture criticism.
Thap Khlo is an agricultural district with more than 160,000 rai of farmland, almost half of the total area.
Manote Wattanaprasit, a resident who helped organise the parade, said the district has suffered from a shortage of tap water for more than a decade with no signs authorities would fix the problem. The Meteorological Department reported no rainfall in Phichit yesterday but the weather.com website forecast 60% of the area covered by the district would be soaked throughout the week.
